The problem with the news is: People do not believe in something unless they have read it in the newspapers or seen it on TV. [President Nixon said something like that.] Thus result is that newspapers having that much power began to say what they wanted people to believe. They could create their own news and people would believe it.
But the issue is really deeper. People will believe only in the absurd. It is not as if they will believe in what is reasonable, and as a second best believe in the absurd also. Not at all. Rather to be absurd is the prerequisite of belief. So you see why the Rambam has the first of the Ten Commandments as being to know the existence of the First Cause, not to believe. Belief is the opposite of knowledge.
Socrates actually dealt with this issue in one of the shorter dialogs--I forget which. But not everything that is absurd is really absurd. Sometimes it is simply beyond reason.
